“Yes, that too.”
“And hot fucking whores to massage all my aching muscles.”
I draw up short, brows rising. “You’d fuck a fairy?”
She stiffens, then shrugs. “Can you really talk? I mean, we both know they’re pretty to look at. The males with wings…”
“Wings, huh?” I don’t know why I’m working so hard to keep the smirk off my face when she’s refusing to look at me. “Does it help if they’ve got pale hair too? Muscles for days… a bit like a certain—”
“If you finish that sentence,” Prae murmurs darkly. “I will take his fancy sword and run you through with it.”
“But would you really want to get blood on such a heartfelt gift—”
That quickly, there’s a knife at my throat, and I lose the ability to hold back my smirk. “Touchy, cousin?”
“I know you struggle with not being a cocky know-it-all,” Prae hisses. “But shut your mouth.” She sheathes her dagger and drops her pack to the sand. “We’re here because of your sad excuse for a love life, not mine. Let’s keep it that way.”
“If you say so.” Sand sinks beneath my feet as I take over the task of leading the way down to the beach.
Fae are everywhere, so I throw up a hasty invisibility glamour. “Stay close.”
“This climb is impossible,” she says, as we canvas the area.
“You know most invisible people don’t talk,” I hiss back.
I regret the snark in my words the moment I say them, but it’s borne of frustration. She’s right. The arch is too steep, the rock jagged, and the places where we could have ascended are already carved with steps that are well guarded by armoured soldiers.
“If only I brought my workshop,” Prae groans. “I was working on a grappling claw fired from a crossbow that might’ve—”
“Well, we don’t have that, do we? How else can we get up there?”
She shrugs. “Fly?”
I growl in frustration. “Let’s try the other side.”
We pass under the archway and onto the quieter beach on the far side. From this angle, it’s even more impossible. The fae have their homes hanging over the edge of the damned arch, creating smooth patches that would be impossible to traverse.
“Fuck,” I spit.
“We could try going back to the outer districts and sneaking through,” Prae murmurs, dodging a small barnacle-encrusted fishing boat that’s been abandoned on the sand. “We can glamour.”
“They caught the goblin,” I remind her. “It’s not going to help my case if Rose has to free me fromanotherdungeon.”
Sighing, I plop my ass down in the sand, switching the invisibility glamour for my fae one. “Fine.”
“Fine?” Prae echoes, shading her eyes as she stares down at me in confusion.
“I’m not leaving.” Fucking sand is already in my socks—of course it is. I take off one shoe, then the other, intent on ridding myself of the annoying grit. “I’ll sit here until she leaves.”
If something happens, I’ll charge the damned palace gates.
“As romantic as that sounds…” Prae says, rolling her eyes. “The tide is coming in, idiot. At least move up the beach.” She jerks her hand towards the fishing district up the bank behind us. “Come on, it might stink, but I deserve a nice bed and a bath.”
I can’t argue that both would be nice right about now, so I follow her back over the dunes towards the ramshackle buildings and fish-strewn drying racks of Siabetha’s poorest district.
Glancing over my shoulder, I take one last long look at the palace before we head inside. Though the entire royal complex overlooks the sea, the main keep juts out over the edge of the arch, boldly flying the violet flags of the Nicnevin alongside the white and gold of the Summer Court. Only magic and the whims of the ocean keep it and everyone inside from plunging into the water. Somewhere in those teetering towers is Rose, and she’s facing a threat I can’t even warn her about.
My hands fist as I stride away. The rest of her Guard better be fucking careful.
